Culloden Battlefield is a short drive from Inverness, and there we went for another Outlander site. But it was so much more. The Cullloden Battle, though the actual fighting lasted only an hour, was pivotal in World History at the time. For hundreds of years, the French and English were in a somewhat constant state of war, vying for control of the seas and all their colonies. Had the Jacobite Rebellion succeeded, as the French hoped, life today could have been very different.

After Culloden, we drove to another cairn. This one was constructed 2000 years before Christ, used again about 1000 years later, then again about 500AD.

We wandered around Clava Cairns for a while. Five distinct cairns were accessible, two with entrances inside (but tiny areas to explore).

Later, we wandered around Inverness.

In the evening, we again found music, again two gentlemen, this time with a guitar and a violin (or fiddle). They taught some adventuresome visitors the moves to some Scottish folk dances. Some of the dancers were pretty good!

Monday was another early morning, because we had a ferry to catch. But on the way, we went hunting for puffins! We had previously assumed we would see the cute little birds in our wandering on these northern islands, but we hadn’t. So, Brian looked up RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) sites on the way to the ferry and found one. It involved a walk, of course, but what a view!

We did not find puffins, but their cousins, guillemots, were abundant. They look different from the puffins we saw a few years ago in the Skellig Islands off the coast of Southern Ireland, but they are still incredibly cute, and they nest in the cliffs.

The ferry ride back to the Island of Great Britain was a bit rough at first, with big waves rocking the boat. We saw the Old Man of Hoy again, with the sun at a different angle.

When we got back to the main part of Scotland, we decided to take the longer, more picturesque route to Inverness for our last three nights. A great decision!

John O’Groats, at the far northeastern point on Great Britain, is a popular tourist attraction because many citizens of GB like to walk the over 800-mile trail from Lands End in Cornwall across the island to the northeast. We went just for fun.

Nearby, we looked at Duncansby Head; we took a short walk to see the famous sea stacks.

A bit south, we visited the Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, which was quite difficult to get to, on tiny farm roads with few passing places. But the complex drive and short hike was worth it, because this castle’s structure mimicked the surrounding rocks beautifully.

Notice the thin rock layers of Devonian sandstone.

We got to our hotel in Inverness near the town center in the early evening. After a light dinner, we found a bar that featured live music, again with two young men, one playing an ordinary accordion and the other a guitar. They also called their performance Folk Music, but the content surprised us! The musicians took songs that were familiar to us, by UB40 and other bands, including ballads that Joan Baez sang, and mixed and matched them into a lively medley that was enjoyed by all. One couple started dancing, we helped move the tables out of the way, and that gentleman invited others to join them. Soon the whole front of the bar was lively with dancers who also sang along with the familiar tunes. We gave the band a good tip. The main singer had a wonderful voice.

Sunday came with mist and a bit of wind. Our first scheduled activity wasn’t until 4:00, so we drove south from the island which the National Geographic map calls Mainland but most people call Orkney. We thought it would be interesting to see more than one island in the Orkney island group. The southern most tip of Orkney (or Mainland) is a small town, St. Mary’s, which is connected to the next island, Burray, by a causeway.

The northern point of Burray housed the Italian Chapel, constructed by WWII prisoners of war. These Italians asked the British if they could build a church to practice their religion. Since many of the soldiers were artisans from Italy, the church is beautiful. They used whatever they could find for construction materials, and painted flat surfaces to look like tiles. Incredible talent!

We continued to the more southern islands across causeways and one Viking bridge. Many WWII ships were sunk in the Scapa Flow, and now it is a magnet for scuba divers who like to see shipwrecks. Some of the ships are visible as you go over the causeways.

The causeways do not allow water circulation, so the water levels on either side are different. This has changed the local ecology of the flow.

Next we visited the fourth of the UNESCO sites on Orkney, Skara Brae, a well preserved Neolithic site of a small town. Ten buildings are partially uncovered; all but one are interpreted to be houses. The tenth building is thought to be a place to make things.

The beach adjacent to Skara Brae is beautiful. So much sand! Very flat.

Part of the ticket to the Neolithic site included a tour of the castle of the family (Watt) who owned the land where the site was discovered in 1850 after a big storm. They lived in that castle for many generations And owned some beautiful place settings, which are on display.

Back in Kirkwall, the St. Magnus International Music Festival is a week full of activities, happening while we were there. Before we arrived, we purchased tickets to a performance by two young men, one playing a violin, or fiddle, and the other a special accordion on which he could change the left keyboard to play either single notes or chords. They called their act folk music, but it was almost all instrumental. Both are talented musicians, and we enjoyed the performance. A nice way to say goodbye to Orkney.

A good thing about visiting Orkney is that everything is relatively close, so no drives over about 30 minutes. Of course, one must still deal with single-track roads with passing places, or sometimes not enough passing places! We had three sites in the plan, two reserved in advance.

First, a guided tour of Maeshowe, a Neolithic burial site similar to the one we walked to yesterday, but much better preserved. Awesome to have a guide, Carey, to explain it all. 

We had to walk bent over for about 30 feet to reach the midpoint of the cairn. No pictures inside, of course, but the tour was worth it. The guide did a wonderful job explaining things.

The site was made in Neolithic times, latter part of the Stone Age. Later, in the Bronze Age, Vikings also used the site. Some left messages, mostly their names (the guide thought the messages were from bored teenagers — graffiti like what happens today). She explained how to read the Viking runes, and showed us the etching that became the symbol of the site.  (Pictured above.)

Carey also explained the henge, the low wall that encircles most sites of this approximate age. She said that the henge was to separate the outside, where normal life occurs from the inside, which deals with matters of a more spiritual nature. 

We next went to a site that had no guided tours, Standing Stones of Stennis. So many tour buses! We waited for a break in the crowds before venturing to the site. Fortunately for us, the cruise-ship tourists had limited time, so we didn’t have to wait long. Also, we had leftover pizza from the night before, so we ate lunch in the car. 

The third part of this UNESCO World Heritage Site was a Ranger-led tour of one of the largest stone circles known, the Ring of Brodgar. This is the only site known to our guide that did not have a henge surrounding it. But it did have a big ditch surrounding the ring of stones, which allowed access to the center from only two points about 180 degrees apart. 

So many Neolithic sites so close together! Perfect as a UNESCO Site.

We enjoyed looking at the plants at all these sites as well. The Ring of Brodgar is covered with wildflowers. Here are a few examples:

After driving back to Kirkwall, we walked to St. Magnus Cathedral, the highlight of the town. A group of musicians were practicing in the cathedral for their performance later that evening, part of the annual St. Magnus International Festival. The music was eerie, spiritual, quite fitting for a cathedral!

The Orkney Islands partially protect a natural harbor called Scapa Flow, with additional protection from strategically sunken ships. However, the protection was insufficient to prevent disaster. Two weeks after England declared war on Germany in 1939, a U-boat torpedoed the English warship, HMS Royal Oak, killing over 800 sailors. This led to the construction of additional barriers between the islands, to be discussed in a later post. A memorial for this event was at St. Magnus Cathedral.

We had another scotch whisky tasting scheduled on Saturday afternoon. We walked into the Highland Park visitor center just down the street from the cathedral and the host called to us by name! She was expecting us as we were the only folks signed up for that tasting. We had a nice video tour of the distillery and tasted two different whiskies.

Unfortunately the Highland Park Distillery is closed for a major renovation, but we snapped a couple of pictures while driving past.

Continuing our tasting of Orcadian beverages, we stopped in for a beer at the Orkney Brewery visitor center just a few storefronts from the Highland Park visitor center. The bartender was friendly and we each had a bottle of their beer.